Valencia mayor critical of La Liga over games played in high heat

Valencia mayor Joan Ribo has taken a swipe at La Liga for only choosing to move certain games due to the heat.

Real Betis' home league game against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday evening will be played one hour and 30 minutes later than originally scheduled due to the high temperatures that are being predicted for Seville.

La Liga want to avoid playing games with temperatures surpassing the 30ºC . The game was scheduled to start at 17:30 BST but temperatures are expected to reach 35ºC, and it will now kick-off at 19:00, when it will drop to 30ºC. La Liga announced.

However Levante and Valencia were recently forced to play out a derby in similarly high temperature.

"This is very good," Ribo replied to La Liga's tweet about the rescheduling. "All that is missing is that La Liga understands that in Valencia it's also very hot to play a derby at 12.

"We are happy with the change in criteria and we encourage them [La Liga] to apply it also in our city when the case arises! Levante and Valencia CF".

Valencia's derby match at Levante on Sept. 2 was nicknamed "The Derby From Hell" by the press as it was not moved despite the strong heat in the city at midday.

Speaking at the time, La Liga had said the temperature in Valencia was lower than in other cities in Spain and reverted to FIFA's ruling that "a football game is a moderate risk up to 31.9ºC," and decided water breaks for players to rehydrate was sufficient.